The Evolution of Altruism and Social Intelligence

March 6, 2012

What can the decision making skills of monkeys tell us about our own
tendencies? How do chimps and human toddlers decide when and how to help
others? Just how "smart" and "nice" are our closest relatives? And how
did their evolution impact human development?

In celebration of Darwin Day, the Center for Inquiry-New York City
and New York City Skeptics on Feb. 12, 2012, explored these and related
questions with a panel discussion featuring prominent psychologists Laurie Santos, director of the Comparative Cognition Laboratory at Yale University, and Felix Warneken, Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Drs. Santos and Warneken joined Massimo Pigliucci,
philosopher at the City University of New York, for a discussion about
altruism, decision making, and the evolution of human cognition.